Good real estate websites, part 2

In an earlier post, I mentioned some of the best real estate sites to visit if you're looking to find a house. What about the "for sale by owner" sites? Aren't they good, too?

Sure, and I encourage you to visit them.

But right now, the for sale by owner (FSBO) market is fragmented. There isn't one site where you can view all FSBO listings in a given city or ZIP code. (Not a surprise, really. Each FSBO website is run by a different company, and each one wants to make money off folks looking to sell their homes.)

I recommend starting with realtor.com if you're the sort of person who wants to visit one site and view as much real estate as possible. But if you're an inquisitive and thorough sort, you'll want to get a complete picture of everything by also visiting some FSBO sites.

There are some cities where FSBOs have a huge market share -- sometimes as much as 30% of all the houses for sale. That's not the case in west-central Illinois, and on most of the sites listed below, you'll be lucky to find one or two houses for sale in a given town.

One final note: I ran my estimates (included below) on what it would cost to run ads in west-central Illinois. These numbers may not hold true for bigger markets in more metropolitan areas of the U.S.

To the list!

Good FSBO sites:
forsalebyowner.com -- Definitely seems to be the most popular of the FSBO sites, and my Alexa toolbar ranks it 9,113 -- meaning that, at this moment in time, Alexa considers it the 9,113th most popular site on the Internet. (Alexa ranks yahoo.com #1, msn.com #2, and google.com #3.) Rankings aren't a flawless science, but I do think they matter; if you're going to sell your house on your own, you want it to be posted on a website people actually visit.

If you want to sell your house, paying $199 at forsalebyowner.com lets you post it on their site indefinitely; if you pay $249, they'll also give you a yard sign. They also offer an intriguing feature: For $349, they'll include the aforementioned stuff, plus allow you unlimited access to their toll-free real estate consultation line. (I'm not sure how great the advice on their consultation line actually is, but then again, I imagine some people would tell you that they've received rotten advice from real estate agents hired for a lot more than $349.) For $599, forsalebyowner.com will post your house on yahoo.com and some other websites, too.

owners.com -- Ranked 30,701 by Alexa. $49.95 lets you post your house on their site until it sells. $79.95 does the same thing, plus a yard sign. $179.95 is everything plus a virtual tour. They also offer a separate package: $377 lets you post your house in the local multiple listing service (MLS) -- the database of properties overseen by real estate agents in that area. (I like this idea of MLS a la carte, but it's been highly controversial in some parts of the U.S., and lawsuits have been filed because of it. I plan to write more about all this in a future post.)

homesbyowner.com -- Ranked 49,529 by Alexa. This site will give you a free (!) listing and one photo. $79.99 will give you a yard sign and allow you to post up to five photos. $129.99 allows you up to 20 photos and a virtual tour.

fsbo.com -- Ranked 58,620 by Alexa. $69.95 posts your house on their site for nine months, and for $10 more, they'll throw in a yard sign. Or, for $499, they'll post your house in the local MLS.

byowner.com -- Ranked 141,414 by Alexa. $249 to list your house (with six photos) until it sells. $49 extra for yard signs.

And then there are the folks who go the FSBO route and never do anything more than stick a sign in the front yard. Obviously, you won't find those houses on any websites, and often the only way to stumble onto them is by driving up and down streets in a given town. But maybe Google's team of experts can come up with a infrared-like map that can detect all yard signs (both the FSBO and real estate agent kind) from low-earth orbit, then post the results on an easy-to-navigate Google site. Why not?